Graduate student professional development

Professional development (PD) has become an integral element of professional practice and training within psychology and related fields, yet the construct has not been conceptually well defined. Psychology graduate students (N = 593) were surveyed to assess PD across 3 primary areas: ''What is PD for you? Is this fostered by your program? and In which areas would you like more?'' Students endorsed numerous items as being part of PD, with only 3 elements of PD fostered by graduate programs (statistics and research, theories of behavior ethics). Multivariate analyses of variance revealed some differences between clinical/counseling and research/academic students on the factors across 2 of the primary areas. A conceptual definition of PD is offered, with recommendations for graduate students and educators to identify PD needs and evaluate whether those needs are being met.